MAC Protocol Implementation & Design for Wireless Distributed Computing

Abstract

The idea of wireless distributed computing is rapidly gaining recognition owing to its promising potential in military, public safety and commercial applications. This concept basically entails distributing a computationally intensive task that one radio device is assigned, among its neighboring peer radio devices. The added processing power of multiple radios can be harnessed to significantly reduce the time consumed in obtaining the results of the original complex task. Since the idea of wireless distributed computing depends on a radio device forming a network with its peers, it is imperative and necessary to have a medium access control (MAC) protocol for such networks which is capable of scheduling channel access by multiple radios in the network, and ensuring reliable data transfer, incorporating rate adaptation as well as handling link failures. The thesis presented here elaborates the design and implementation of such a MAC protocol for WDC employed in a practical network of radio devices configurable through software. It also bring to light the design and implementation constrains and challenges faced in this endeavor and puts forward viable solutions. Keywords: WDC, MAC, UDP, FEC I. INTRODUCTIONIn this fast paced evolution of innovations, new technologies emerge to surmount challenging problems and open the door to useful applications that can transform the world around us. Wireless distributed computing (WDC) is an emerging technology which can enable many applications which otherwise will remain unchallenged in today's world where our demands often surpass the capability of devices around us. The premise of wireless distributed computing requires a radio device to form at least a single hop network with peer radio devices to distribute and compute an intensive task. This renders salient advantages such as reduced per-node computational latency, energy and power consumption. Such unique purpose of WDC requires a MAC protocol which not only schedules transmissions among the radio devices efficaciously but also governs data distribution among peer radio devices and data retrieval from them. Traditional commercial multi-hop networks based on the fundamental OSI network model have a limited role defined in the MAC layer as the subsequent upper layers provide different additional functions. This hierarchy of functionality introduces a redundant layer traversal and processing delay potentially substantial to WDC applications. So it is desirable to enable the MAC protocol for WDC to bear additional functionalities like reliable data transfer, rate adaptation and link failure recovery. There is no such existing MAC protocol for WDC.